In August Mnangagwa conferred national hero status on Ndabaningi Sithole a founder of the Zimbabwe African National Union in 1963 who fell foul of Mugabe and was sidelined after independence...
In ZANU-PF'S internal struggle both provinces are in the camp that follows Emmerson Mnangagwa; around the Chipinge district of southern Manicaland the Shangaan-Ndau people had remained unswervingly loyal to Mugabe's predecessor as party leader the late Ndabaningi Sithole offering the MDC a base on which it swept all but four of the province's seats last year...
In the southern third of the province the Ndau/Shangaan group (the base of the late Ndabaningi Sithole) for 20 years returned two or three members to Parliament as the sole opposition; after a brief flirtation with ZANU they are in opposition again...
The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) formerly led by the late Ndabaningi Sithole is contesting 15 seats and is sure of one Chipinge which it has held since Independence; the current MP is the party leader Wilson Kumbula...
This rules out Abel Muzorewa and the United Party Ndabaningi Sithole and ZANU-Ndonga Edgar Tekere and the Zimbabwe Unity Movement Kenneth Mano and the Zimbabwe Congress Party...
They aim to occupy the political space between President Robert Mugabe’s government and old-guard oppositionists such as Ndabaningi Sithole Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Edgar Tekere...
The Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole’s ZANU-Ndonga has one seat and so does Margaret Dongo’s Zimbabwe Union of Democrats which attracted some attention last year when it was formed focusing on her outspokenness and irreverent tales about her former colleagues in the ruling party...
None of the more than 20 political parties is worth discussing especially as Edgar Tekere of the Zimbabwe Unity Movement is 61 Abel Muzorewa of the United Parties is 73 and Ndabaningi Sithole of ZANU-Ndonga is 78...
The two rival candidates are likely to be Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole (76) of ZANU-Ndonga (although he has been threatening to pull out) and Bishop Abel Muzorewa (71) of the United Parties...
Similarly the Zimbabwe government has tried to link the dissidents to veteran opposition leader Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and is maximising political capital from Chimwenje...